leaf peeping in style

I heart flying!  It's probably a good thing since I travel so much for work.  The problem is, I'm spoiled now!  No weather delays, no TSA, no liquids rule, looking out the front window, no leaving the house 2 hours before take off, pulling up to the plane door in a car, no flight plan needed, sitting next to the pilot, amazing leg room...I could go on and on.

I know this sounds impossible, but it happened to us yesterday morning.  Let me start by telling you a little about this plane.  There are only about 500 of these planes in the world and of those only 50 have a plastic nose on them (of which only 2-3 are privately owned).  Our particular chariot started out it's life in the South African army, was then owned by a man in Canada and now by our friend.  Now let me show you around.  First we have to get it out of the hanger - the little machine starts up like a lawn mower.

Remember that plastic nose I was talking about that makes it so unique?  Here's a close-up for you.

Here's Sean with all his leg room.

It even has a Garmin...

I was so good at flying the plane I could even take pictures while doing it.

Here's Sean trying his hand at flying (he even got to land it - well except the last 20 seconds).

I was able to take some really neat pictures during our flight.  Remember when we went to Southwest Harbor with Susan?  Here's Cadillac Mountain/Bar Harbor/Southwest Harbor area from the air...

Remember when we took Duke to Fort Knox?  Here it is from the air...

We even flew over the Camp.  Remember how we recently sunk the dock for the winter?  You can actually see it in the water from the air...

Here are some of my favorite pictures I took of beautiful Maine coastal scenery.

Sean and I actually had other plans for Sunday.  We were going to go leaf peeping - but the old fashioned, in a car, way.  The colors aren't nearly as vibrant as they've been the last couple of years I've seen them but still beautiful.  See for yourself.

We flew between 200-600 feet for most of our trip and probably went to about 1,000 feet at the highest point.  Most commercial planes I fly on fly at 30,000 feet to give you a comparison.  It was so much fun to hear all the other planes, private and commercial, chat over the radio with the tower.  The biggest problem with the experience...now I'm going to want to leaf peep this way EVERY year!

How are the leaves doing where you're at?  Have you gotten out to peep them yet?